Oct 3 What is a Serving of Vegetables?

The amount of vegetables you need to eat depends on your age, sex, and level of physical activity. Recommended total daily amounts vary from 2-3 cups per day for adults according to the USDA (ChooseMyPlate, 2016).

Porting sizes can be confusing and often times many of us are unsure what a is a recommended serving of vegetables. Here are a few examples of a serving of vegetables:

1 cup of raw leafy vegetables (about the size of a small fist), 1/2 cup of other vegetables or 1/2 cup of vegetable juice (AHA, 2015).

Based on their nutrient content, vegetables are organized into 5 subgroups:

dark-green vegetables, starchy vegetables, red and orange vegetables, beans and peas, and other vegetables (ChooseMyPlate, 2016). Just because you had 3 cups of broccoli today, doesn't mean you've met your recommended servings for your daily/weekly vegetables. You need a variety from all the subgroups.